Noisy Athearn drivetrain

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

The Athearn Genesis line is silky smooth. I have a few of the SD70’s and absolutely love them. Too bad i can’t say the same thing about my Athearn Dash 9. I contemplated repowering it using an A-Line repowering kit, but to be honest i don’t think it’s the motor that’s noisy. The bulk of the noise seems to be originating from the u-joints. I’ve also noticed that since the center wheelset on each truck pivots up and down to compensate for trackwork imperfections that sometimes i get a bit of noise from the gearboxes due to the gears mesh changing. On perfectly flat trackwork there’s no problem.

Can anyone suggest something to quiet down the u-joints? I thought about applying some grease in hopes it would dampen some of the sound but i dont want the grease to be dirt magnets. I assume it would take quite a bit of grease to quiet things down but would just end up flinging all over the place.

My Athearn SW1500 is much quieter than the Dash 9 is. I wonder if the problem is because the drive shafts are so much longer. Too bad i can’t use the newer style of driveshafts the Genesis line employ…

2

Try this tune-up site,
http://www.horailroading.net/athearn-tune.htm

3

Sounds to me like a U-Joint problem. Take the universals apart and inspect them. If you find some casting flash in the sockets or on the balls trim it off with a sharp Xacto knife. Also make sure that the motor is properly seated in its mount. Hope this helps…Vic

4

On one side of my layout i have a dead end spur that runs to a lake.That is where engines like those end up.

5

They say polishing the gears with pearl drops works.Got some but not tried yet.

6

Frist thing I would check is to see if every thing is seated in there place and nothing as come loose.I would then check to see if the drive was binding any where.If all is in place and no binds,I would put 1 small drop of oil on the u joints-ONLY ONE SMALL DROP!!! any more then that you will have oil all over the place.I do this to my regular athearn drives and it does help smooth them out.Again ONLY ONE SMALL DROP!!Be sure to use the type of oil that does not attack plastic.

7

I had this problem on 2 dash-9s. I tracked the problem down to the drive shaft. The weight of keyed part of the shaft throws the shaft out of balance when the engine was in motion especially around curves. I also noticed the key would rub on the electrical pick-up leg attached to the truck. I replaced the shaft with (I think) an a-line dog bone u-joint kit & a peice of rod on each end. Runs much quieter now.